Chapter 9 of The Head of the House of Coombe is here in full — 299 sentences across 60 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter IX
Chapter 9 of The Head of the House of Coombe is here in full — 299 sentences across 60 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Donal talked a great deal as he pranced home. Feather had excited as well as allured him. Why hadn’t she told Robin she was her mother? Why did she never show her pictures in the Nursery and hold her on her knee? She was little enough to be held on knees!
Chapter 9 of The Head of the House of Coombe is here in full — 299 sentences across 60 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/59 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
past form of “allure” — dispose or incline or entice to
From this reading “Feather had excited as well as allured him.”
(of persons) excessively affected by emotion
From this reading “Feather had excited as well as allured him.”
join tongue and groove, in carpentry
From this reading “Feather had excited as well as allured him.”
hinge joint in the human leg connecting the tibia and fibula with the femur and protected in front by the patella
From this reading “Why did she never show her pictures in the Nursery and hold her on her knee?”
plural of “knee” — hinge joint in the human leg connecting the tibia and fibula with the femur and protected in front by the patella
From this reading “She was little enough to be held on knees!”
a child's room for a baby
From this reading “Why did she never show her pictures in the Nursery and hold her on her knee?”
plural of “picture” — a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or abstraction) produced on a surface
From this reading “Why did she never show her pictures in the Nursery and hold her on her knee?”
small Old World songbird with a reddish breast
From this reading “Why hadn’t she told Robin she was her mother?”
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
used before a singular noun to mean one of a group, when it is not a particular one
From this reading Donal talked a great deal as he pranced home.
past form of “allure” — dispose or incline or entice to
From this reading Feather had excited as well as allured him.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading Why did she never show her pictures in the Nursery and hold her on her knee?
at the same time that; because; in the way that
From this reading Donal talked a great deal as he pranced home.
used with a past participle to form the passive, or with -ing for continuous tenses
From this reading She was little enough to be held on knees!
act on verbally or in some form of artistic expression
From this reading Donal talked a great deal as he pranced home.
the past form of “do”, used in questions and negatives
From this reading Why did she never show her pictures in the Nursery and hold her on her knee?
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Donal talked a great deal as he pranced home.
an adequate quantity; a quantity that is large enough to achieve a purpose
From this reading She was little enough to be held on knees!
(of persons) excessively affected by emotion
From this reading Feather had excited as well as allured him.
join tongue and groove, in carpentry
From this reading Feather had excited as well as allured him.
relatively large in size or number or extent; larger than others of its kind
From this reading Donal talked a great deal as he pranced home.
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading Feather had excited as well as allured him.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Why hadn’t she told Robin she was her mother?
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading Donal talked a great deal as he pranced home.
occupied or in the control of; often used in combination
From this reading She was little enough to be held on knees!
belonging to a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned
From this reading Why hadn’t she told Robin she was her mother?
the male already mentioned, as the object of a verb or preposition
From this reading Feather had excited as well as allured him.
cause to continue in a certain state, position, or activity; e.g., “keep clean”
From this reading Why did she never show her pictures in the Nursery and hold her on her knee?
where you live at a particular time
From this reading Donal talked a great deal as he pranced home.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading Why did she never show her pictures in the Nursery and hold her on her knee?
hinge joint in the human leg connecting the tibia and fibula with the femur and protected in front by the patella
From this reading Why did she never show her pictures in the Nursery and hold her on her knee?
plural of “knee” — hinge joint in the human leg connecting the tibia and fibula with the femur and protected in front by the patella
From this reading She was little enough to be held on knees!
limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent
From this reading She was little enough to be held on knees!
a woman who has given birth to a child (also used as a term of address to your mother)
From this reading Why hadn’t she told Robin she was her mother?
not ever; at no time in the past or future
From this reading Why did she never show her pictures in the Nursery and hold her on her knee?
a child's room for a baby
From this reading Why did she never show her pictures in the Nursery and hold her on her knee?
touching and supported by a surface
From this reading Why did she never show her pictures in the Nursery and hold her on her knee?
plural of “picture” — a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or abstraction) produced on a surface
From this reading Why did she never show her pictures in the Nursery and hold her on her knee?
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Donal talked a great deal as he pranced home.
small Old World songbird with a reddish breast
From this reading Why hadn’t she told Robin she was her mother?
a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading Why hadn’t she told Robin she was her mother?
give an exhibition of to an interested audience
From this reading Why did she never show her pictures in the Nursery and hold her on her knee?
past form of “talk” — exchange thoughts; talk with
From this reading Donal talked a great deal as he pranced home.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading Why did she never show her pictures in the Nursery and hold her on her knee?
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading She was little enough to be held on knees!
inflected form of “tell” — express in words
From this reading Why hadn’t she told Robin she was her mother?
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading Why hadn’t she told Robin she was her mother?
(often used as a combining form) in a good or proper or satisfactory manner or to a high standard (“good” is a nonstandard dialectal variant for “well”)
From this reading Feather had excited as well as allured him.
the cause or intention underlying an action or situation, especially in the phrase “the whys and wherefores”
From this reading Why hadn’t she told Robin she was her mother?
Chapter 9 of The Head of the House of Coombe by Frances Hodgson Burnett holds 299 sentences, grouped into 60 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the source edition, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 9 holds 299 sentences of The Head of the House of Coombe, unabridged, divided into 60 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 9 of The Head of the House of Coombe by Frances Hodgson Burnett exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 299 sentences, grouped into 60 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 60 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 60 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 9 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
Common questions about reading The Head of the House of Coombe by Frances Hodgson Burnett on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 7022 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #6491 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #6491, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 585 minutes of reading across 1405 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Head of the House of Coombe section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 31 chapters of The Head of the House of Coombe to begin.
Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.
Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in The Head of the House of Coombe, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
